On Our List: The 2017 Home, Design, & DIY Books We Can’t Wait to Read

Planning on updating your home, garden, or life this year and looking for some inspiration? Well, these forthcoming books—with their extensive tips, helpful lists and dreamy photos—can help you get where you want to go.

1. My Zero-Waste Kitchen: Easy Ways to Eat Waste Free (DK Books; February 7)

You’re probably already all about reducing, reusing and recycling. But this book offers new, unexpected ways to eliminate trash, cut down on kitchen waste and grow your own vegetables from scraps. Uh… yum?

2. Indoor Edible Garden: Creative Ways to Grow Herbs, Fruits and Vegetables in Your Home By Zia Allaway (February 7)

If you think you don’t have room to grow herbs, think again. Windowsills, walls, ceilings—there are hidden gardening spots in plain view everywhere. This book will help you suss them out, and then successfully grow herbs, vegetables and edible flowers in them. Boom.

3. The Home Decluttering Diet: Organize Your Way to a Clean and Lean House By Jennifer Lifford (February 28)

Have you ever followed a detox plan to get healthy and shed excess weight? Well, the same process can be applied to your home. This book lays out a 30-day plan with day-by-day tasks that will help you set goals, change bad habits and achieve a clutter-free lifestyle. Junk drawer, you’ve been warned…

4. Bless This Mother Effing Home: Sweet Stitches for Snarky Bitches By Katie Kutthroat (March 7)

Now that you’re done knitting your Pink Pussy Hat, maybe it’s time to start cross-stitching witty little sayings that you can artfully display in hip vintage frames throughout your home. Because who doesn’t need a hand-stitched reminder that The Struggle is Real? Patterns and directions included!

5. Change Your Home, Change Your Life With Color: What’s Your Color Story? By Moll Anderson (March 14)

Adding color to your life can influence your mood, behavior and emotions. So follow the exercises in this book to nail down which colors suit you best and how to incorporate it into your surroundings so that you can stop “living in neutral.”

6. The Decorated Home: Living With Style and Spirit By Meg Braff (March 14)

If you’re ready to graduate from hand-me-down furniture and weekend trips to Ikea, then this book is a great place to start. It’s a beginner’s guide to creating a more polished look through using color, pattern, and killer finishing touches.

7. The Seaside House: Living on the Water By Nick Voulgaris (March 14)

Even if you’re not yet furnishing a deluxe waterfront getaway, you can still incorporate a little coastal zen into your life, right? And this book highlights houses you don’t want to miss, including those belonging to Martha Stewart’s getaway in Maine and Tommy Hilfiger’s Miami villa. So whether you’re seriously into nautical knick-knacks or just want to zone out to some pretty pictures of blue water, get this book.

8. The Bucket List: 1000 Adventures Big & Small By Kath Stathers (March 21)

Okay, so this book is less about decorating your home, and more about designing your life. Because there are a ton of supremely unique experiences out there, and this book categorizes some of the most amazing locations, pursuits and opportunities to be had around the world. All you have to do is choose.

9. Real Life Organizing: Clean & Clutter-Free in 15 Minutes a Day By Cassandra Aarssen (April 18)

If the idea of going through every single one of your possessions to gauge how much joy they ignite in you seems daunting (thanks for nothing, Marie Kondo), try this step-by-step approach instead. Written by a professional organizer, this book is packed with tips and tricks for creating a more functional home and organized life in a way that won’t drive you insane. Win win!

10. How Art Can Make You Happy By Bridget Watson Payne (May 2)

You know it and we know it. It’s time to stop staring at our phones and start appreciating the world around us—and that’s exactly what this guide can help you do. It’s packed with suggestions for getting more enjoyment out of museum visits, noticing the art we encounter in our daily lives and for falling in love with art in all its many forms.

11. Making Candles: Create 20 Decorative Candles to Keep or Gift By Sarah Ditchfield (May 23)

If DIY projects with scented, colored wax is your thing, well, get ready to become Kandinsky of Candle Making (okay, that’s a stretch, but you get what we mean, right?). With options ranging from easy to hard, you’ll be making everything from pillars to tapers in no time at all. (And if you don’t know what the differences between those are, this book will teach you that, too!)

12. Potted: Make Your Own Stylish Garden Containers By Annette Goliti Gutierrez (May 31)

What’s that, you say? A renowned garden designer is not within your budget? No problem! Because this book contains tons of ideas for making your own hip garden containers from ordinary materials including driftwood, rope and enamel bowls.

13. Ikea Hacks: DIY Home Furnishing Projects from IkeaHackers.net By Jules Yap (July 11)

There’s a lot to love about Ikea, namely quality, affordable, stylish furniture—plus meatballs! But did you know don’t have to follow the directions exactly as indicated or end up with the same furniture as everyone else you’ve ever met? This book explains how to mix and match Ikea components in fresh, unexpected ways. Plus the step-by-step instructions to create these masterpieces are waaay easier to follow than Ikea’s notoriously baffling sketches.